Another Day for Carpenter

(Busch Stadium) It will be at least one more game before Matt Carpenter returns to the St. Louis Cardinals lineup as the first baseman continues to deal with the aftermath of taking a ground ball off his right, ring finger.

“I’m probably unavailable tonight,” shared Carpenter after taking a few swings in the cage to test things out. “Mainly just because I want to play tomorrow, so I’m not going to take BP, just give it one more full day of rest, and then hopefully be in there full-go tomorrow.”

Besides the swings, Carpenter also tested things out with a few throws and then had the finger drained.

“Yeah, we’ve done some things with it to help try to relieve the pressure–it’s probably half the size today that it was yesterday,” he said. “It’s gotten a lot better.”

“As far as he progressed today, if he does the same thing should be ready to go tomorrow,” agreed Mike Matheny. “Hopefully, he responds to treatment like he did yesterday.”

X-rays were negative for any breaks, so now it’s a matter of pain tolerance and the strength returning in Carpenter’s grip.

“When it happened, you’ve got the adrenaline of the game and also the swelling hadn’t started yet so I was able to finish the game,” he said. “And then the next day, obviously it was sore were I can’t really grip the bat or effectively through or do anything.”

When he returns to the lineup, Carpenter intends to remain without batting gloves–even as he prepares to lose his finger nail.

“I’ll just tape it,” he said. “The problem was, if it would’ve just hit my nail it would’ve probably been better. But it hit me so square, that’s why you’re seeing the swelling from the finger. I have a bone contusion in this knuckle because it jammed together. If it would’ve just scraped my nail off, I’d probably be better off.”

With Carpenter out, Jose Martinez will get his second consecutive start at first base. Greg Garcia is also again starting at third base.